NetAdmin Newsletter
CPTTM Network Admin newsletter issue #28, Perry Chu, Editor in Chief
Supervised by Kent Tong, Manager for CPTTM-IT Department

Dear Network Administrators,

This CPTTM NetAdmin newsletter is to bring useful news to you, Network Administrators in Macau, for references without obligations, so that you can do your jobs easier and better! Hope you like it. if you'd like to unsubscribe or recommend your friends to subscribe, just email me at kent@cpttm.org.mo. Old issues are available here. Also printable version for this newsletter.

Topics in this issue:

Check your MySQL Server Performance by  MySQLTunner

As a freely available DBMS, many SMEs and individuals are using MySQL. However, for DBAs, they may be concerned with how to fine tune the performance of the MySQL server and optimize the MySQL databases. The good news is, you could do it easily with MySQLTuner.

MySQLTuner is a free Perl script that can instantly show what MySQL is doing and related statistics. It can also advice you on how to improve its performance and stability. However, you must be clear that MySQLTuner can only help you improve the performance instead of a silver-bullet for your MySQL performance problems. For example, you could use MySQLTuner to test the performance of the SQL statements of your applications, so that you could optimize them, which  MySQLTuner can't do by itself. If you'd like achieve the best performance, ultimately you have to perform the testing and evaluation yourself.

Debug your shell scripts with bashdb

Have you ever written shell scripts in Linux to automate your administration tasks? If so, you should know that it is very difficult to get them right. When programming in C/C++, there are powerful debuggers allowing you to set breakpoints, inspect variables and execute step by step. But when writing shell scripts, there are usually no such aids. The good news is, now, you can use the Bash Debugger Project (bashdb) to do that.

After installing bashdb, you could run it like:
bash --debugger xxxx.sh (your shell script file name)
or
bashdb xxxx.sh (your shell script file name)

Then you can debug your script using next (execute next step), bt (backtrack), list (list the current statement), examine or print (inspect the values of variables). These functions will significantly reduce the time and effort needed to write scripts and improve their accuracy.

Windows Installer Cleanup Utility 

When you are working on your computer and installing a new program, the installation suddenly fails. Now you are left with a partly installed program. You try to install the program again, but you are unsuccessful. Or, maybe you have problems trying to remove an old program because the installation files are corrupted.

Do not worry. Windows Installer CleanUp Utility might be able to help. You can use the utility to remove installation information for programs that were installed by using Windows Installer. Be aware that Windows Installer CleanUp Utility will not remove the actual program from your computer. However, it will remove the installation files so that you can start the installation, upgrade, or uninstall over.

When you use Windows Installer CleanUp Utility, you can perform the following functions:
  • Select one or more programs that were installed by Windows Installer from the Windows Installer CleanUp dialog box.

    To do this, select the programs that you want in the Installed Products list in the Windows Installer CleanUp dialog box. After you make this selection, the utility removes only Windows Installer configuration information that is related to those programs.
  • Remove all Windows Installer information associated with the selected programs. This includes the entries for the programs in the Add Or Remove Programs item in Control Panel. Be aware that only the Installer information for that particular program is removed, not the files.
Windows Installer CleanUp Utility does not perform the following functions:
  • Remove Windows Installer
  • Remove files of any programs that are installed by Windows Installer, such as Microsoft Office 2003
If you use this utility to remove Windows Installer configuration information for your program and you plan to reinstall the program, you should reinstall the program in the same folder where you originally installed it. This prevents duplication of files on your hard disk or disks.

Book Review 

CCENT/CCNA ICNA1 - This book is designed to provide information about the Cisco ICND1 (640-822), ICND2 (640-816), and CCNA (640-802) exam.  

CCNA ICND2  - This book is designed to provide information about the Cisco ICND1 (640-822), ICND2 (640-816), and CCNA (640-802) exam.  

CCNA Voice - This book is designed to provide information about the 640-460 Implementing Cisco IOS Unified Communications (IIUC) certification exam.  

CCNA Wireless - This book is designed to provide information about the 640-721 Implementing Cisco Unified Wireless Networking Essentials (IUWNE) certification exam.  

CCNA Security - This book is designed to provide the information necessary to be successful on the Cisco IINS (640-553) exam. 

You can borrow this book from the CPTTM IT Book Shelf at Cyber-Lab.

Upcoming courses for network administrators

Course code Title Start date Duration (hours) Fee (MOP) Remarks
CM83-09-2009-C Cisco Networking Academy Program (CCNA) 2009/09/06 157.5 6280 More hours and more time to study CCNA.
CM362-09-2009-C Cisco Networking Academy Program (CCNA Security) 2009/09/23 36 5000 NEW! Further study Cisco firewall, VPN and IPS/IDS after CCNA. Can also take the CCNA security certification.
CM374-09-2009-C CCNA Voice 2009/09/13 36 5400 NEW! Study the Cisco VoIP system.
CM313.3-09-2009-C Windows Server 2008 MCITP Part 3: Application Platform 2009/09/22 48 1400

In addition, there are some interesting IT courses for your kids:

Course code Title Start date Duration (hours) Fee (MOP) Remarks
CM193-09-2009-C How To safely use your computer: prevention of virus, defer hackers, safe use of USB 2009/09/12 12 350
  • Enjoy up to 75% reimbursement
CM372-09-2009-C Implement a SOHO network for non-IT professional 2009/09/01 21 600
  • NEW!
  • Learn how to share Internet access, WiFi, file sharing and printer sharing at small or home offices
  • Enjoy up to 75% reimbursement

Feedbacks

Any questions, ideas or experiences to share? Contact me at 88980601 or kent@cpttm.org.mo. We also have 3 more newsletters: CIO newsletter, Software developer newsletter and E-flow newsletter.

Until next time, 

Kent Tong

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